That apparent attack--according to news reports, the CIA said it's still investigating--followed the group's requests, earlier in the day, for suggested targets. As part of that campaign, the group also released a phone number, which it rerouted for "phone DDoS" attacks. "Our number literally has anywhere between 5-20 people ringing it every single second. We can forward it anywhere in the world. Suggestions?" said a LulzSec tweet.

LulzSec apparently hacked the CIA to impress a Twitter user, Quadrapodacone, who had lambasted the group for only attacking "soft targets" such as PBS and Nintendo, noted Gawker. "Stop calling yourself hackers, you're giving real hackers a bad name," Quadrapodacone said. "Here's a challenge ... fbi.gov or cia.gov try changing text or something." (Both sides of the exchange now appear to have been deleted from Twitter.)

Lovely.

LulzSec is proud of its exploits. ZDNet called them "voluntary celebrity hackers." That makes the hackers sound like reality TV stars (hmm ... on the other hand, LulzSec is the same kind of blight to society as reality personalities). ZDNet said this:

What/who will Lulz Security's next target be? Well, since they're the voluntary celebrity hackers these days who are out to make a name for themselves via culminating and releasing lists of email addresses and passwords, you may want to consider following them on Twitter to keep up with the latest. The earlier you find out if you're inadvertently involved in a future experiment of theirs, the better for you to do something about it ASAP.